Ohio should extend the foster-care age to 21: editorial

Updated December 10, 2013 at 2:13 PM;Posted December 8, 2013 at 4:30 PM

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TaShawn Chavis has aged out of the foster care system but his foster parents Trina and Gerald Carrier continue to care for him. He attends Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA.
(Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer)

Ohio could make a dent in the tide of homelessness and other problems that befall foster-care teenagers after they age out of their homes by extending the age when foster care ends from 18 to 21.

A number of states have done so recently, including Nebraska and Michigan, thanks to a federal law that provides significant resources to help defray the cost.

Plain Dealer columnist Phillip Morrishas highlighted how homelessness makes it difficult for youths in Ohio who've aged out of the system to get an education and good jobs.

Intuitively, that makes sense. Few parents would push their teenagers or even 20-somethings out of the nest without further contact and support and expect them to do well on their own, points out Gary Stangler, CEO of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative based in St. Louis. Stangler is working with Cuyahoga County officials and several other local social-service agencies to find ways tostem youth homelessness here.

Foster kids face special obstacles, often coming from biological families where abuse, neglect and abandonment make it even more difficult to be successful, independent young adults.

Yet regardless of those obstacles, Ohio’s foster care children are now "emancipated" from the system after they reach the age of 18. That includes about 170 teens a year in Cuyahoga County.

These youngsters need what Stangler calls families “without an expiration date,” and while some wonderful foster families do keep their teens after 18 -- Trina and Gerald Carrier featured by Morris deserve a special nod -- most may not be able to afford to do so.

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That’s where the federal government comes in. Under a 2008 law, the feds have sweetened the pot by paying half the foster-care costs for any state that extends the age, encouraging Florida, California, Michigan, Nebraska and other states to take the leap.

While states and local governments have to pay the rest, Stangler points out that foster-care extension could save states the costs associated with the early pregnancy, incarceration and homelessness that commonly plague youth left on their own at 18.

Morris' bleak snapshots of life after foster care indicate that Ohio has far more to gain from extending foster care than it currently costs to deal with the lost lives and futures of these young people.

That's why allowing 18-year-olds to stay in foster care for a few more years should be the law of the land.

Editor's note: This editorial was modified on Dec. 10, 2013, to correct the spelling of Gary Stangler's name.